The present invention relates to a Look-Ahead Vend Control Employing A Common Vend Energization Monitor To Effect Vend Selection Recognition For Vending, and especially to a vend control which employs a monitor common to a plurality of channels of a multi-channel vendor for detecting the energization of a vend delivery means appropriate for the vend selection made by a customer and for communicating to the master control means of the vend control that an appropriate vend delivery circuit has been completed, and in which the master control means of the vend control is responsive to such communication to effect vend delivery circuit lockup for a sufficiently long enough period to permit the appropriate vend delivery means to effect vend delivery.
For many years now single channel vending systems, including vendors and vend controls therefor, have been known which have been capable of vending a selected item from among a number of possible vend selections, all of which have had the same vend price. With such vendors it has become a common practice to utilize a vend control which compares the total credit entered against the common vend price, generates a single vend signal, if appropriate, regardless of the vend selected, and routes such vend signal by appropriate means, such as through a daisy-chained selection switch circuit, to the desired vend delivery means to effect energization thereof.
Over the years other vendors and vend controls therefor, which may be generally described as multi-channel vending systems, have also become known, and with such systems it is now possible to vend from among a plurality of items, some of which are differently priced from one another. A number of commercial vend controls are presently on the market and can be employed with appropriate multi-channel vendors for vending from such vendors different products having, variously, four, or ten, and occasionally even more, different prices.
In going from single to multi-channel vending systems, and in increasing the number of channels available as well as the number of selections per channel available in the multi-channel systems, it was found that an ever increasing amount of circuitry of increasing complexity seemed to be required, with much of the circuitry being replicated for each vend selection. Such replication was recognized as an undesirable trait which militated against both miniaturization of vend controls and minimization of interface connections between the vendors and the vend controls therefor. As a result, attempts were undertaken to develop new control systems which would reduce the amount of replication required and would simplify and minimize the number of interface connections required between vendors and vend controls. Particularly advantageous advances in this regard were realized with the developments of control circuits that employ, for each channel of a vendor, a separate selection monitor means that is common to the selections belonging to such vend channel and which detects the actuation of any of the various selection means associated with such channel and in response thereto communicates to a master control means information indicating that a vend selection belonging to such channel has been made, which information is utilized by the master control means in determining whether or not a vend should be authorized over such channel. Typical of such control circuits and the selection monitor means employed therein are those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,828,903 and 4,234,070. While such selection monitor means have proven extremely advantageous for single channel vendors, their use with multi-channel vendors still requires, in many instances, more circuitry, and replication of circuitry, than is desirable. As is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,828,903, which is assigned to Applicant's assignee, and as is also apparent in U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,070, multi-channel vendors have, for the most part and until the present, still required the use of a separate selection monitor for each channel of such vendor, with the attendant replication of circuitry and consequent disadvantages thereof.